Four fire appliances and an incident command unit were still at the site today.

A spokesman for Niramax said: “At around 11pm a small fire broke out in one of our machines in a shed on site, which would have been locally contained were it not for the adverse weather conditions which caused it to spread.

“Fire fighters were called and spent most of the night bringing it under control, and confined within the plant boundaries.

“We are working with authorities to establish how it started.”

Cleveland Fire Brigade incident commander Siman Weastell said: “When we arrived we were faced with a large building well alight with a large quantity of nonhazardous waste on fire.

“Our plan of action is to keep the fire under control and contain the fire to the site and stop it spreading to other buildings.

“The weather isn’t helping. There’s strong winds and a lot of smoke.

“It’s difficult to say how long we will be here. There’s a large amount of waste.”